Sport and Ethnology

Introduction

Dealing with the issue of sport and ethnology, three major factors come to mind; prejudice, racism, and discrimination. These factors span across gender, ethnic, racial, religious, and cultural groups. In the following paragraphs, I will discuss how these factors have played a part in the evolution of sport in our society. The first issue tackled in this paper will be racism in sports, followed by prejudice and discrimination.

Racism

“A definition of race might rely on an outward manifestation such as color or some other physiological sign. Race and ethnicity (and to some degree nationality) also imply a shared socio-cultural heritage and belief system. Finally, race and ethnicity harbor a physiological self-identification. Indeed, this factor is perhaps the most important in defining the identity of an “ethnic” or “racial” individual. It implies a conscious desire on the part of a person to belong to an aggregate of people, which possesses unique cultural characteristics, rituals and manners and a unique value system.

North America is, and always has been, an ethnically diverse society. Yet this cultural diversity along religious, ethnic and national lines had been tolerated only in a limited degree, end even only on the dominant Anglo-Saxon elite’s terms.” (Eisen and Wiggins, 1994, p. xii). History books repeatedly show this in their pages. A person can not pick up a history book and read through the pages with out finding something on how a particular athlete or group of athletes were persecuted because of their race. Part of the American dream that is taught to our youth of is freedom, equality and the ability to move ahead in life if a person is motivated to do so. It is unfortunate that this isn’t the case; that is unless the person fits into the right sociological group.

For instance, “The American Dream of unlimited possibilities was shattered for black athletes. By 1900 most of them had successfully been excluded from American sport and were forced to establish their own separate sporting organizations. The most famous of these were the black baseball leagues, a loose aggregate of teams that did not achieve much organizational structure until Rube Foster founded the National Negro Baseball League in 1920. Late nineteenth-century black athletes were often disturbed by their inability to be classified by anything other than race. They recognized the symbolic importance of their triumphs to the black community, but wanted to be acknowledged as outstanding athletes rather then simply outstanding black athletes.” (Eisen and Wiggins, 1994, pp 137-138) For blacks being distinguished in this manor was demeaning to them; as well as it should be. One of their ways of protesting against this came at the XIX Olympiad.

During these games black American athletes decided to protest against social injustice. Athletes such as Jim Hines, Tommie Smith, John Carlos…and other black Americans decided to displays signs of black power in different forms. The first to do so, Jim Hines, said that he did not wish to accept his gold medal from Avery Brundage, the president of the International Olympic Committee. In the ceremony for the 200-meter dash, runners Jones and Carlos came out to accept their awards displaying signs and clothing depicting black power. They were reprimanded, but other athletes followed suit at these games (Hoffmann, PhD. And Bailey, MA, 1991, pp 59-61). Collectively, society has taken steps towards less racism in sports based on color. There is no longer a ban keeping athletes out of sports such as baseball due to color. Stereotypes and racial thoughts still exist today, but they are improving with time. W.E.B. Du Bois wrote in his book, The Souls of Black Folk, that blacks in this country have always felt a sense of being “an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings, two warring ideals in one dark body whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder… The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife.” (Du Bois, 1961, p. 17) As long as this type of feeling is predominant in society, racism will be an issue. Society needs to move away from the belief that white-skinned people are intellectually superior, while those who have colored skin are inferior in that aspect. People are people no matter the color of skin, whether it is white, black, brown, red, or yellow; if cut they all bleed.

It is unfortunate that racism is so prolific in out society. It is wrong for society to say that someone can not do as well at a job because of the color of ones skin. To say that only whites can be good coaches is preposterous. This unfortunately, is the case with a vast amount of people. This is very evident just from the information we received from class. In